Curriculum vitae

Education

• 2003 – 2007
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA
• 2001 – 2003
  M.S. in Electrical Communication Engineering Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
• 1997 – 2001
  B.Tech. in Electronics & Communication Engineering National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India

Academic & professional appointments

• 2019 – Present
  Professor — Auburn Neuroimaging Center, Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, USA (primary appointment)
• 2019 – Present
  Adjunct Professor — Dept of Psychology, Auburn University, USA
• 2022 – Present
  Visiting Professor — Dept of Heritage Science and Technology, IIT Hyderabad, India
• 2019 – Present
  Visiting Professor — Dept of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore, India
• 2021 – 2022
  Visiting Professor — Center for Brain Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
• 2020 – 2023
  Visiting Professor — Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
• 2018 – 2021
  Affiliate Faculty — Center for Health Ecology and Equity Research, Auburn University
• 2018 – Present
  Affiliate Faculty — Center for Neuroscience, Auburn University
• 2015 – Present
  Affiliate Faculty — Alabama Advanced Imaging Consortium, Birmingham
• 2015 – 2019
  Associate Professor — Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University
• 2010 – 2015
  Assistant Professor — Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University
• 2009 – 2010
  Research Faculty — Dept of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech & Emory University
• 2007 – 2009
  Post-Doctoral Fellow — Dept of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech & Emory University
• 2003 – 2007
  Research Assistant — Dept of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech & Emory University
• 2003
  Software Engineer — SASKEN Communication Technologies, Bangalore, India

Research interests

Research performance indicators

Latest from Google Scholar · April 2026.

Honors & awards

• 2024
  Outstanding Leadership Award World Health 2.0 Conference, Las Vegas
• 2023
  Senior Member, IEEE Recognition of significant performance and substantial contributions
• 2017
  Organization for Human Brain Mapping Merit Award
• 2016
  President’s Outstanding Collaborating Units Award Auburn University
• 2013–2017
  ISMRM Magna / Summa Cum Laude awards International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
• 2003
  Indian Institute of Science Research Scholarship
• 2000
  Undergraduate Scholarship for Academic Excellence

Major media coverage

• NYT
  Cover story on awake fMRI in working dogs — The New York Times
• 2014
  Religion & brain interactions research — ScienceWorldReport, WTVM
• 2013
  Autism neuroimaging research — ScienceDaily

Research funding

Selected external grants. $50M+ total as PI / Co-PI from federal agencies including NIH, NSF, DARPA, DoD, AFOSR, DHS, and Army Research Office.

• $49.9M
  DCSITE — Detection Canine Sciences, Innovation, Technology & Education DHS, 2022 – 2026 · Co-PI (PI: Bartol)
• $2.26M
  Cross-modal correspondences between visual and auditory features NIH R01, 2015 – 2020 · Multiple PI
• $996K
  Functional imaging for developing outstanding service dogs (Phase 2) DARPA STTR, 2014 – 2017 · PI
• $637K
  Establishment of the Center for Neuroscience PAIR Tier II, 2018 – 2021 · Co-PI
• $458K
  Applications in parallel and distributed computing NSF, 2017 – 2020 · Co-PI
• $311K
  Pilot trial of frameless virtual cone stereotactic radiosurgical thalamotomy Varian Medical Systems, 2017 – 2019 · Co-PI
• $255K
  Interdisciplinary Rural African American Aging Research PAIR Tier I, 2018 – 2021 · Co-PI
• $150K
  Neural signatures of trust during human–automation interactions AFOSR, 2013 – 2016 · Multiple PI
• $150K
  Extra-virgin olive oil prevents conversion of MCI to Alzheimer’s PAIR Tier I, 2018 – 2020 · Co-PI
• $126K
  Functional MRI of olfactory system in dogs Auburn IGP, 2011 – 2013 · PI
• $119K
  MRI brain imaging of post-concussion syndrome Army Research Office, 2012 – 2013 · Co-PI
• $100K
  Functional imaging for developing outstanding service dogs (Phase 1) DARPA STTR, 2013 – 2014 · PI
• $88K
  Examining oxytocin as a causal mechanism for long-term bonding between humans and autonomy DoD, 2021 – 2023 · Co-PI
• $80K
  Pathways of disparities in multiple sclerosis Auburn IGP, 2018 – 2020 · Co-PI

Editorships

• Chief
  Chief Editor, North America — Brain Informatics
• Founding
  Founding Editor — AI in Neurology
• Assoc.
  Associate Editor — Frontiers in Neuroscience
• Assoc.
  Associate Editor — Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
• Assoc.
  Associate Editor — Frontiers in Neurology
• Assoc.
  Associate Editor — Frontiers in Psychiatry
• Assoc.
  Associate Editor — Brain Sciences
• Assoc.
  Associate Editor — PeerJ
• Managing
  Managing Editor — Frontiers in Bioscience
• Editor
  Editor — Medical Diagnostic Methods Journal
• Guest
  Guest Editor — IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics; Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience; BioMed Research International

Professional service

Reviewer for funding agencies

Reviewer for journals

Conference committees & chairs

• 2025
  Program Committee, 10th International Conference on Neuroscience & Cognitive Brain Information (BRAININFO 2025), Lisbon, Portugal
• 2024
  Program Committee, 17th International Conference on Brain Informatics, Bangkok, Thailand
• 2022 – Present
  IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society Standards Committee & Intelligence Augmentation for Medical Imaging Working Group
• 2022
  Session Chair (Image Synthesis & Enhancement; Brain Imaging) — IEEE ISBI 2022, Kolkata
• 2022
  Program Committee, ICONIP 2022, New Delhi, India
• 2021 – Present
  OHBM Communications Committee
• 2012 – 2013
  Treasurer, Governing Committee of the Detection & Correction of Motion in MRI & MRS Study Group, ISMRM

Society memberships

University service

Responsible for functional neuroimaging activities at the Auburn MRI Research Center, supporting investigators across the University in setting up neuroimaging experiments and associated data analyses.

• 2014 – Present
  Steering Committee, Alabama Advanced Imaging Consortium
• 2023 – Present
  University Administrator Evaluation Committee
• 2022 – Present
  University Post-Tenure Review Committee
• 2022 – Present
  University Teaching Effectiveness Committee
• 2022 – Present
  Senate Access, Engagement and Opportunity Committee
• 2020 – 2023
  ECE Graduate Policy and Admissions Committee

Consultation

Knowledge Partner and consultant to the MR India Consortium—a multi-million-dollar project funded by the Government of India to build and validate a low-cost MRI scanner for developing countries.

Consortium institutions:

Also serving as consultant on the AFOSR Mathematics, Information and Life Sciences grant (Krasnow Institute, GMU) and on an NIH R01 grant (UAB) for longitudinal multimodal imaging in first-episode psychosis.